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Before being elected into office as the President of the Republic of Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had won the admiration of many Ghanaians as an incorruptible public figure, who would always put the interest of his country above any personal consideration.

Before being elected into office as the President of the Republic of Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had won the admiration of many Ghanaians as an incorruptible public figure, who would always put the interest of his country above any personal consideration.

Indeed, that enviable image of incorruptibility, which he had carved for himself, contributed tremendously in the massive victory he led his party, the governing New Patriotic Party, to chalk in the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.

This was mainly because naked corruption and looting of the national kitty had been elevated to ridiculous heights under the previous National Democratic Congress government, led by former President John Dramani Mahama.

Ghanaians were, and still remain, convinced that corruption had done a monumental havoc to the development of the nation for a very long time, and so the time had come for the nation to get a leader who would be resolute in the fight against that national canker.

Even though majority of Ghanaians believe the NPP has a superior plan for the development of the country than the NDC, we believe the additional impetus to elect the governing party into office in the last election was the incorruptible image of President Akufo-Addo, especially compared with former President John Mahama, whose character was considered to be serving as a real oxygen for corruption to thrive.

It is, therefore, not surprising to notice that members of the NDC have given the strongest indication of a grand agenda to go every length to ‘demolish’ the incorruptible image of President Akufo-Addo.

We agree absolutely with Edwina Akufo-Addo when she says the NDC’s spirited and desperate attempt to link her with the issue of sale of contaminated fuel by the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Ltd is a calculated move to attack the image of his father, the president.

“This is, yet, another example of the NDC trying to tarnish the image of my father, the President of the Republic. They have, since 2008, tried without success, and one would have hoped that they would have learnt their lessons by sticking to the facts and telling the truth, rather than propagating falsehoods,” Edwina said yesterday in a statement.

For us at the Daily Statesman, we believe, with this in mind, all people who are close to the President, as well as those he has appointed to serve in various capacities, must be very careful about what they do, if they want us to believe they wish the president well. This is because the President’s image cannot be spared when they engage all acts of corruption.

And because these people are also descendants of Adam and Eve, just like all human beings, who are not ‘immunized’ against greed, we expect the President to be always mindful of the need to keep him incorruptible image intact.

This, we believe, he can do by ensuring that no individual or group is allowed to engage in acts of commissions or omissions that will give him and his government a bad name.

And here, we want to remind the president of his earlier warnings, during the 2016 electioneering campaign, and after he had taken office as the president, to his appointees: “If your goal in coming into government is to enrich yourself, then don’t come. Go to the private sector. Public service is going to be exactly that; public service!”

Having worked meticulously over the years, even in his youthful days, to carve that enviable niche of incorruptibility for himself, we think the president has a personal responsibility to maintain that image at this time of his life, especially now that he is the leader of the country. Anything short of this will be very disappointing.